Extra Credit: What is the relevance of
archaeology to today’s issues?
- Worth up to 8 points added to high grade of test 1 & 2;
- 500 words maximum
-Open by a statement of how many classes you have missed and why
you deserve extra-credit
-Due: Tuesday (4/27)
Some possible themes:
- Long-term change of human groups, including dynamics of humansenvironment (ecological/climate change and disaster);
-Culture & Civilization as adaptations to environment, demography and
other factors, rather than simply achievements of only some people;
-Archaeology defines what constitutes civilization and provides novel
instances of human achievements;
-Understanding and valorizing cultural diversity
ANDEAN
CIVILIZATION
Cultural and biological adaptations to highland
Andean Environments: more blood that is more
viscous and richer in red cells, a heart that is
proportionately larger, and specially adapted,
larger lungs, with an enhanced capacity to take
in oxygen from the thin atmosphere.
Terraced and irrigation agriculture, specialized
crops, drought resistance, coca chewing to
reduce fatigue and metabolize carbohydrates,
providing greater energy
Chronology of Central Andes
• Late Preceramic: 3000 to 1800 BC
• Initial (ceramic) Period: 1800 to 400 BC
Three Horizon and Two Intermediate Periods
• Early Horizon (Integration): 400 to 200 BC
• Early Intermediate (Regionalism): 200 BC to AD
650
• Middle Horizon (Integration): AD 650-1000
• Late Intermediate (Regionalism): AD 1000-1476
• Late Horizon (Inka; integration): AD 1476-1533
Late Preceramic
• “The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization”
(Moseley 1975): “Maritime Hypothesis”
- Rich marine resources provided basis
for early settled communities
and complex societies, such as
Caral, Aspero, and El Paraiso,
On Peru’s desert coast
- Ample evidence of
Industrial crops (cotton,
Gourds, reeds) but less
Evidence of food crops
- Also, El Nino (natural
disaster) and drought
Caral
The first urban center in the Americas, covers 66 ha (163 acres); by
2400 BC it was the capital of a regional polity in the Supe River, with
various temple structures facing a central plaza, the largest of which, the
“Piramide Mayor” was 160x150 m (525x492 ft) and 18 m (59 ft) high.
Caral’s Amphitheater
El Paraiso
Aspero, with six substantial platforms
up to 8 m (18ft) high, surrounded by
15 ha (37 acres) of deep refuse.
Uppermost levels of two platforms
date to ca. 3000-2500 BC
Late Preceramic U-shaped
Initial Period ceremonial complex at
Sechin Alto, includes the largest monument in the
Americas for this time (1800 BC)
After a millennium of agricultural expansion, several
centuries of drought was an important factor in the
abandonment of these centers, after 800 BC
U-shaped
temple
Sunken circular
Courts/plazas
Cerro Sechin
Temple shows
ample evidence of
warfare
Chankillo, ca, 400 BC
Early Horizon
Chavín de Huantar
The main complex of masonry buildings, called the Castillo, composed of (a)
New Temple and (c) Old Temple
U-shaped plaza and
sunken circular courtyard
The “Lanzon” in
the subterranean
Gallery (b)
U-shaped plaza with
sunken circular courtyard
The “Staff
God”
Chavin art and
iconography, the
Chavin “cult,”
spread throughout
much of Central
Andes in the Early
Horizon, although
uncertain degree
of political and
economic
integration
Paracas, South-Central Coast
• Necropolis of elite
burials in subterranean
vaults with elaborate
mummy bundles and
exquisite fabrics in
dazzling colors
Early Intermediate Period:
Gallinazo Culture in northern Peru, notable for
platform mounds and extensive irrigation in coastal river valleys
Gallinazo Group, vast sprawl of collapsed adobe brick
buildings, estimated to contain some 30,000 rooms and compartments
The Moche of
northern coastal
Peru
Painted
murals
from the
Huaca del
Luna
Extremely elaborate art and
iconography that provides
details on diverse aspects of
Moche culture
Moche rulers lived in opulent residences
atop the Huaca del Sol, which measured 340 x 160 m
(1115 x 525 ft) and over 40 m (130 ft), one of the largest
mounds ever constructed in South America
Adobe bricks used in construction of the Huaca del Sol
had “makers marks” that identified
communities of corvée laborers
Painted murals at El Brujo
Marching prisoners
The “Presentation Theme”
Moche ideological themes expressed in iconography include battle between
supernatural beings, death and burial of a king, and teams of kuraka (elite) warriors
'blackened residue' in a Moche goblet
was human blood
(Bourget and Newman, 1998)
Moche elite (kuraka) burial at Sipán
Moche semi-divine warrior king
Throughout Andean civilization,
kuraka class ruled as divine
intermediaries between heaven
and earth
A massive El Nino flood and drought between
AD 562-594 diminished the power and
integration of the Moche state, which
disappeared ca. AD 700-800
The Nazca polity (south coast) was relatively small in
population, but produced ‘geoglyphs,’ which have caused wild
speculation, and include >1000 km of straight lines, >300
geometric figures, and dozens of animal figures
MIDDLE HORIZON: WARI & TIWANAKU
Tiwanaku
The Gateway of the Sun
at Tiwanaku; with
staff-god (similar to Early Horizon
Chavin deity), cut from
a single block of stone
Ruling kuraka at Tiwanaku stressed
imposing temple mounds, gateways, and
stelae, which were eschewed by their
northern Wari neighbors, although Wari
came to adopt Tiwanaku pantheon
Faith in both religion
and government was
undermined after ca. AD
1050, after several
centuries of drier
climate (drought)
Contact and interaction between
upland Wari center of Cerro Baul and
mid-valley Tiwanaku center of Omo
in the Moquequa valley
Reed boat in Lake Titicaca
LATE INTERMEDIATE: CHIMOR
Rectangular compounds, or ciudadelas, at Chan Chan,
capital city of the Chimor empire, the second largest empire in pre-Columbian Americas,
which was subjugated by Inca ca. 1470
Taycanamu: semi-mythical ancestral founder of Chan Chan who arrived by sea
Chimor's paramount rulers, who probably ruled as god-kings,
lived in enormous enclosures called ciudadelas and held court
in rooms called audiencias
LATE HORIZON: INCA
At the time of European contact, the whole
Andean area was under the control
of the Inca empire
The Inca traced their foundation to a
venerated ancestor named Manco Capac, but
the expansion of the Inca empire was initiated
by Pachacuti, the seventh potentate, and his son
and grandson
The Inca empire or “Land of the Four
Quarters” (Tawantinsuyu) had four
major geographical territories, known as suyu,
composed of 80 political provinces.
It was linguistically diverse, but used
a lingua franca called Runa Simi (Quechua).
Sacsahuaman
The capital city of Cuzco, the navel of the universe, was constructed in the shape of
a Puma. It was dominated by the temple-fortress of Sacsahuaman and the residences
of royal lineages (kanchas), the most opulent of which was the Coricancha, with
a gold-bedecked “House of the Sun” and silver adorned temple of the moon
Sacsahuaman, fort-like temple crowning the heights of the imperial capital;
made by a rotating force of 20,000 corvée laborers over several decades
The ceque system
Inca writing: the khipu
30,000 to 40,000 km (18,600-24,800 miles)
of thoroughfares and trunk lines
Inca road
Machu Picchu
Inca
bridges
Inca tunnel
Andean peoples, like the Inca,
developed both cultural and
biological adaptations to the
high elevations of the Andes, such
as terraced agriculture, irrigation,
heightened lung capacity,
greater amounts of
red-blood cells, and chewing coca
with quinoa, to deal with fatique
Inca political economy depended on
agricultural taxation, textile tribute, work
draft (corvée labor) and required tribute
from both men and women
Machu Picchu, the Versailles-like rural palace and estate
made by the emperor Pachacuti, was rediscovered by
American archaeologist Hiram Bingham in 1911
The Inca emperor was decimated by
a smallpox pandemic in the 1520s,
which triggered a seven-year civil war
between rival claimants to the throne.
As Atahualpa marched south to claim Cuzco,
he was intercepted, kidnapped,
ransomed, and killed by Francisco
Pizarro’s forces.